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Devotional brings Joyful news to women

Carol McLeod, a Christian radio personality, invites women to experience exuberant joy and hope with God through her new weekly devotional titled “Joy for All Seasons.”
McLeod is a public speaker and prolific radio and podcast personality in addition to writing books and more. Her program “Defiant Joy! Radio with Carol McLeod” is found on Sirius XM’s Family Talk 131 from Monday-Friday at 2:30 p.m. Eastern as well as several local radio stations. She describes the radio show as Bible teaching to encourage people. She has a podcast available on her website at JustJoyMinistries.com/podcast. On the Charisma Podcast Network she is part of the Spirit Led Woman Broadcast, and she has a daily podcast. Her other projects include writing devotionals for the Youversion Bible app.

(PODCAST HERE: http://www.spreaker.com/user/followersofthecross/devotional-brings-joyful-news-to-women)
In her new book “Joy for All Seasons,” available Sept. 1, 2016, McLeod says she provides a weekly summons into God’s presence complete with rich experiences. The book includes Bible verses to consider and questions to ponder. It is perfect for a personal devotional handbook or for group discussion. This is a “once-in-a-lifetime” book that will be read and re-read year after year after year.
I interviewed McLeod at the International Christian Retail Show in Cincinnati in June 2016.
“I’ve always wanted to do a devotional,” she said. “I think it’s a great tool to give to people. You give them a book and they think ‘I got to read this whole book.’ A devotional … ‘it’s like taking a daily vitamin. I can read one a week. I can do this.’”
The 52 devotionals take you around the calendar year. It takes you through the “seasons” of a woman’s life, from career women to young wives to widows. The book is good for Bible study and Sunday School groups.
McLeod has three daughters-in-law and two daughters. Every Christmas she buys them all the same devotional book. They live thousands of miles apart “and it binds our hearts together. The girls will text each other and say ‘Did you read what it said today?’”
Each week’s theme will be different, from hope to peace to worry to getting through a hard situation to relationships. Every chapter has questions and Bible verses. There are graphics, illustrations and pages to write on, making it a devotional journal.
Although she has five children and seven grandchildren now, McLeod thought she would never have such a large family: She had five miscarriages while taking fertility treatments.
“I was unbelievably depressed. I lived in that black hole. My hormones were out of control. My heart and my arms were empty.”
How did she escape that hopelessness? An “addiction” to the Bible.
“The bible delivered me from that dark place.”
She carried the Bible around the house while doing chores. She wrote verses on cards and laminated them so she could take them into the shower.
Thinking she could not get pregnant anymore, during the time between Christmas and New Year’s one year, she was watching a Christian program on TV. A pastor and his wife were on. The wife spoke to the camera and said there was a pastor’s wife was watching (McLeod’s husband was a pastor) who had suffered repeated miscarriages and she was pregnant. The wife on TV said “Walk in faith, not in fear, because this one’s going to stick.”
McLeod gave birth soon after.
She wanted another child and went back on fertility drugs. The doctor convinced her to end the treatments about nine months later. The following month she got pregnant on her own. That child was named Joy.
Four years later McLeod gave birth to Joanie. She thought she had the flu at first because she “knew” she could not get pregnant again. It took 4.5 months to learn she was pregnant.
“That’s why I have the passion to help women walk through their circumstances with the joy that is only found in Jesus.”
She tells women she cannot change their circumstances but she can help them process their circumstances. She tells young mothers that how they raise their children is more important than who the next president will be. We need to vote and educate, “but the way we do life on a daily basis is very important. We all must live in His (God’s) honor.”
—Jason Reynolds